I believe if you look into the production cost of the R-22 it would be very similar to that of a production Cessna 172. Between 60 and 80 thousand dollars of that cost is attributed to product liability which has to cover the aircraft for its anticipated life. Unlike the automobile industry liability costs for an aircraft have to be absorbed by a relatively small production run. i.e. a few thousand vs. millions. The actual cost for materials and manufacture is only a small element of the sale price.